Sometimes a Chocolate Is Not a Chocolate

Chocolate use is not always about chocolate consumption. It’s almost Freudian that way.

The most recent example of this comes from a media-conscious, progressive, post-modernish arty, activist collective, the Fresh Juice Party, who claim to have sent 5,000 gruesomely rendered soldiers made of chocolate to various opinion-makers as part of a protest of American military policy. They call their confection-conception a FUBAR and claim it is delicious.

Of course, the tastefulness of the actual chocolate is inconsequential, except, perhaps, in service to their political point. It’s similar in that way to all the various things that over the years have been made from chocolate as a way to call attention to themselves … and their creators such as the random assortment compiled on one list of 30 Things Made of Chocolate and another of Amazing Things Made of Chocolate.

The idea of cacao creations being used not for taste but for the ideas conjured in the audiences’ mind can evolve into a nesting doll idea of self-referentialness finding it ultimate — at least to us and so far — when a box of chocolates made of chocolate appears on what Hulu refers to as chocolate television.

Admittedly, it’s a long sidetrack away from making chocolate confections that just taste good for their own sake. But enough of the philosophizing. Back to the kitchen for some and to the sales counter for others.